5 Essential Ways To Safeguard Your SaaS Business These tips and tricks can be used to get your software product to make the cut in a highly-competitive environment.

Creating a new Software as a Service (SaaS) product can be a tedious journey that you, as founder, have to endure at great cost. From envisioning a new idea to creating a proper plan, a tremendous amount of work and time must be dedicated before a business is launched. When you launch your SaaS venture, we are sure that you will have meticulously covered all aspects in the hope that it becomes successful and provides you with the required return on investment (ROI).

ROI becomes relevant and inevitable as your business grows and creates its own platform, without experiencing frivolous expenses. But, in order to achieve this position, your venture must first safeguard its activities so that profit and sustainability are possible.

Below are 5 ways to help you achieve that level of safeguarding where your SaaS venture can grow and still provide your organization with an active ROI.

A customer-centric system should be used to properly address problems.

In order for a software business to grow, its customers must remain happy and there is nothing you can do to bypass or substitute for this. Customers are the heart and soul of any business; so providing them with the right support is a priority.

According to an Oracle survey, 9 out of 10 customers have left companies as a result of bad customer experiences and support. This survey emphasizes the importance of having an easy-to-access and use support structure for customers in need.

Using customer-centric technology does not hurt here either, and tools like Tagove's co-browsing,UserVoice, Zendesk and Support Hero may prove useful in an effort to provide seamless support. Tools can also assist a support team when sending and receiving the updates and feedback in order to better serve customers. Apart from that, a support team should practice a client-centric approach where all potential customer problems, feedback, and complaints are handled with grace and courtesy.

A support team should ensure that customers leave the call feeling satisfied in order to avoid drastically affecting a venture's value, good will and growth.

Data security must be taken seriously

When running software,a significant amount of data is gathered, acquired and generated. Apart from using the data to provide better service; it is also your responsibility to it. In today's electronic world, all forms of data and information are considered precious commodities.

According to a study powered by IBM, companies in 2014 lost $3.5 million on average as a result of data breaches.

Given this, it's easy to understand why protecting you and your customer's data is vital for preventing excessive loss. Data theft or stealing can also be done internally, which is why you should also take steps to protect it from internal compromise.

Systems and servers can also fall prey to crashes and internal failures. It is your responsibility to create an environment where such scenarios are not possible, as any crash or failure can bring down a SaaS venture quickly and leave your customers feeling angry and resentful. Proper backup and regular maintenance are two things you can do to keep data safe and secure.

Train and retrain correctly

When starting a SaaS venture, you must first ensure the inclusion of a solid backup team. In order to accomplish this, proper training must be provided so as to ensure an understanding of the required of running and operation of a SaaS business.

With any new venture, it is important that people know how to operate and use the products correctly so that customers can receive the best possible service and support. A team must be well-prepared to address all of a customer's needs, from start to finish. Training is one of the best ways to ensure products get the best possible push they need to grow and function properly.

Some experts believe that each and every member of a business' team must work diligently to pacify all of a customer's needs by providing them with support on a variety of issues. In turn, this gives them much-needed training, your team real-world experience, the product an overall boost and ultimately, your innovation the growth and ROI.

Provision of perfect quality, service and reliability.

These are three of the most important things that any product or service can have if it wants to grow and generate an ROI, and it is the same with anySaaS business.

A company whose product does not include these three fundamental elements has no chance of success.

Businesses are under constant pressure to develop products which serve the purposes of their customers. To ensure the creation of a good product, create the best possible architecture for the product. This will ensure you're the innovation is competent and reliable. Once you have a good product, follow it up with good after-sales service and support. Follow this pattern from the start in order to more quickly secure the venture's future and growth.

Embrace digital marketing

To ensure your targeted audience buys/downloads your product, make sure to use the digital marketing traits accurately. There are many ways to do this to ensure a product gets innovation famous and increases the venture's conversion rate. This form of marketing will undoubtedly impact your sales and viewership because out of the 7 billion people on earth, 3.4 billion of them use the internet. These results in a huge market to play with.You cannot ignore the benefits of correctly marketing your product in it.

Here are some helpful digital marketing strategies:

• Create and promote relevant content: This can change the face of your software. The right content, in the proper form, will get people's attention. Use articles, blogs, videos and even graphics to promote the content.
• Use e-Mail: The more e-mails that are sent, the more traffic gets generated. This is why it is vital to create a large database.
• Use mobile marketing: In order to reach out to the people shifting their focus from laptops and desktops to mobile phones and tablets, a venture must ensure its product or website is mobile-friendly so that the content can be viewed on handheld devices.
• Use social media: Facebook and Twitter accounts, along with Instagram and Tumblr, can increase a fan following and global reach.

There you have it. These tips and tricks can be used to get your software product to make the cut in a highly-competitive environment. We are confident that if you follow them, your SaaS venture will easily survive and may even grow to provide you with the required ROI. This article is guided on the principles and strategies of Sawaram Suthar, Founder of Jagat Media and The Next Scoop-An Internet Marketing Blog.